Reflection
Mary went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord.”
“Mary Magdalene is the woman whom scripture calls by name in a time when women were seldom named in public documents at all. She understood who Jesus was long before anyone else did and she supported him. She was, it seems, the leader of a group of women who “supported Jesus out of their own resources.” And she never left his side for the rest of his life. She was there at the beginning of the ministry. And she was there at the end. She was there when they were following him in cheering throngs. And she was there when they were taking his entire life, dashing it against the stone of synagogue and state, turning on him, jeering at him, shouting for his death, standing by while soldiers poked and prodded him to ignominy. She tended his grave and shouted his dying glory and clung to his soul. She knew him and she did not flinch from the knowing.” (Joan Chittister). Scripture tells us that she was the first one to whom he came after his resurrection.
Prayer
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
Action
Reflect on the fidelity of Mary Magdalene’s discipleship. She became the first messenger of Jesus. What does her witness say to you?
Suggested Reading
Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,
and I don’t know where they laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabboni.”
John 20:11-18
How beautiful to think that the first appearance of the Risen One took place in such a personal way! That there is someone who knows us, who sees our suffering and delusion, who is moved by us, and who call us by name.
Pope Francis
Mary of Magdala was one of Jesus’ most influential apostles-and she was not a prostitute. Mary kept vigil at the cross throughout Jesus’ crucifixion, discovered the empty tomb after Jesus’ resurrection, and was then commissioned to ‘go and tell’ the good news.
Elizabeth Johnson
The Magdalene factor in friendship is the ability to know everything there is to know about a person, to celebrate their fortunes, to weather their straits, to chance their enemies, to accompany them in their pain and to be faithful to the end, whatever its glory, whatever its grief. The Magdalene factor is intimacy, that unshakeable immersion in the life of the other to the peak of ecstasy, to the depths of hell.
Joan Chittister
Mary is the first one to whom Christ appears after the Resurrection. What a privilege! What a sign of his love for her! What a sign of her fidelity to him! Then the Risen One himself asks Mary to return to the disciples and proclaims what she has seen. “I have seen the Lord,” she says simply.
James Martin
To dispel unfounded myths of her sinfulness, to spotlight her role as an apostle and witness to the resurrection Mary Magdalene is presented as the premiers woman disciple of Jesus, as one who went about with him during his public life, who was steadfast at the foot of the cross and witnessed the church forming flow of blood and water from the pierced side of Jesus, who witnessed the burial and thus knew exactly where the body of the Lord was placed, by whom, how, who discovered the empty tomb on Easter morning, who ionformed the male disciples that the body of the Lord was gone, who received the first appearance of the Risen Lord, and in a deep sense for a few fateful moments, hours, thereafter she was the Church, the only person who knew the story and could proclaim it of the Resurrection.
Sandra Schneiders